"When you're a star they let you do it," Trump said on the Access Hollywood tape recording, "You can do anything."
The "they" in question were women. The "star" was Trump.
But the list of "stars" who have felt free to "do it" has grown, seemingly every day.
Matt Lauer has joined Charlie Rose as two big-time morning news anchors who have been fired for … inappropriate behavior.
SIDEBAR
Who do we think will win the bidding war for Anderson Cooper to sit in either the NBC or CBS morning anchor chair, and how long do we think it will take?
END SIDEBAR
To think that these powerful men could even invent the activities they have been accused of perpetrating tells me that if they thought they were going to get away with them forever; they were nuts.
Now, the crazy stain has spread to the U.S. Congress. Rep. John Conyers and Sen. Al Franken - both Democrats, by the way - are just the leading edge of the sunlight beginning to shine on the shadowy conspiracy of silence that has thrived for decades, if not centuries, on The Hill.
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi who completely fumbled the message last Sunday when, on Meet the Press, she appeared to defend Conyers against then unnamed women:
Chuck Todd: "Do you believe John Conyers' accusers?"
Pelosi: "I don't know who they are, do you? They have not really come forward."
This is not a new phenomenon in the House and Senate. To hear Pelosi tell it she has only just found out about the gambling going on back there.
This, in spite of the fact that she was Speaker of the House from 2007 to 2011, was House Democratic Whip before that, and has held onto her office as House Minority (Democratic) Leader since the GOP took back control.
So, she is complicit as a co-conspirator against the interests of women working in the House and, by example, in the U.S. Senate.
Since Conyers' activities have become public women reporters have openly discussed the fact that they made sure new reporter covering The Hill should never get into an elevator with him.
None of this excuses Conyers, but don't those reporters - and female staffers who knew about him - have some responsibility for not using their very powerful searchlights to cast light on Conyers' behavior?
I can count - without running out of fingers - the number of times I've watched the Today Show. If you subtract the times I did watch that didn't include watching a boss or client being interviewed, I don't think I need any fingers at all.
But, even I know who Matt Lauer is. Variety published an in-depth report on Lauer's activities. If you can get through the first three paragraphs without rolling your eyes and saying "is he nuts?" even if you're by yourself, you have far better self-control than I.
Careful. Don't leave the Variety piece on your computer screen while you go to get coffee or your next stop will be the H.R. Department.
All while all that nuttiness is going on we have Donald J. Trump in the White House. He insists on poking a rhetorical finger in the eye of North Korea's Kim Jong-un - this time added the adjective "little" in front of his oft-repeated title of "Rocket Man."
He added that Kim is a "sick puppy" during a speech about tax report yesterday.
SIDEBAR II
I'm not in the habit of abetting Trump's bad behavior, but if he would refer to Kim as "Little Rocket Boy that might have an even greater effect."
END SIDEBAR II
The popular press has begun a concerted effort to make the case that Trump is nuts and that the 25th Amendment might have to be invoked to remove him from office.
If the press corps thinks that is going to happen, then THEY are nuts.
Maybe 2018 will be better.
On the Secret Decoder Ring today: Links to the Variety piece on Matt Lauer, to CNN's reporting on Nancy Pelosi, and to the 25th Amendment.
The Mullfoto is a frightening message from my in-car navigation system recently.
® 
